Russell Simmons accuser calls out ‘Breakfast Club’ after mogul’s rape denial
Russell Simmons denied allegations of sexual assault during a radio interview Wednesday, leading one of his accusers to blast the program for giving the hip hop mogul a platform.
The 62-year-old music producer spoke out on “The Breakfast Club” when co-host Charlamagne tha God asked him about the new HBO Max docuseries “On the Record,” in which Simmons has been accused of sexually assaulting three women.
“I have not watched it,” Simmons said, before going on to detail his life as a “playboy” while denying he ever forced himself on anyone.
“I’m guilty—of having underwritten, supported, made soundtracks for, taken advantage of, and lived in a grossly unjust society,” he went on. “I helped write the song ‘I’m a Ho’ with Whodini. … I made the movie ‘How to Be a Player’ and Bell Bill Bellamy played me. So I know what I’m guilty of, and I’ve been unconscious as a playboy, and today the title is appropriate of ‘womanizer,’ So I’m guilty of that. And you know, back then I thought it was a game … there were no black actresses that I didn’t date, and they’re my friends today.
“I went out every night, looking for new girls to date, and almost all of them are my friends today … they don’t have the experience of me being the monster that the movie makes me to be.”
Simmons also discussed Oprah Winfrey’s initial involvement in the doc and her decision to ultimately back out.
“She walked away, and she did say that the stories had inconsistencies — not one, but all the stories, all three girls.
“I could never say that someone doesn’t feel victimized, these stories are 25-40 years old. I can’t say that someone doesn’t feel victimized, I can tell you that I don’t feel I victimized them.”
Accuser Sil Lai Abrams immediately took to social media to call out the businessman and “The Breakfast Club” itself for giving the Def Jam co-founder a platform.
“The biggest radio show in the Black community just gave a huge middle finger to Black women and survivors of sexual assault,” Abrams tweeted. “This is obscene @breakfastclubam. Why do you carry water for this man? Why now? Why are you so tone deaf? You’re all complicit in ensuring that black women’s right to bodily autonomy continues to be denied. You’re also rape apologists.”
Article via PageSix